Fresh Air Weekend: Roy Choi, Industrial Musicals And 'The Story Of A New Name'

Chef Roy Choi was named Food and Wine Magazine's Best New Chef in 2010.

Bobby FisherCourtesy of Harper Collins

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Originally published on November 9, 2013 10:52 am

Fresh Air Weekend highlights some of the best interviews and reviews from past weeks, and new program elements specially paced for weekends. Our weekend show emphasizes interviews with writers, filmmakers, actors, and musicians, and often includes excerpts from live in-studio concerts. This week:

Roy Choi's Tacos Channel LA And The Immigrant Experience: The Los Angeles chef says the Korean taco was "like a lint roller," pulling its chefs' backgrounds into one food truck offering. Choi's new book, L.A. Son, tells his story of addiction, culinary success and growing up Korean in Orange Country, Calif.

Female Friendship Puts 'New' Angle On Italian Classism And Machismo: Bound by the confines of gender and finances, two young women take divergent paths in Elena Ferrante's The Story of a New Name, the second book in her "Neapolitan Novels" trilogy. Critic John Powers believes the bold, expansive series to be semi-autobiographical, a revelation from a secretive author who won't reveal her true name.

Sales Take Center Stage: To Boost Morale, Companies Burst Into Song: Industrial musicals were like Broadway shows, only written and performed for corporate sales meetings or conventions. And as ridiculous as the songs were — "My bathroom, my bathroom is a private kind of place" — they were often delivered by very talented people.